Patience
by Ayslinn
Summary: One-shot series of drabbles... Because being patient can get you what you most desire.


_Perhaps this should have been a longer story, but it felt complete this morning when I added the final vignette, so I present to you..._

**Patience**

by Ayslinn

_Disclaimer : I don't own it. Duh. _

"What are you doing out here?" He asked, sitting down next to her on the bank of the lake.

"Hiding."

"Don't you usually hide in the library?"

She sighed, "What good is hiding in the library if everyone knows where to find me?"

He chuckled at that, "Good point."

...

"I'm not an owl," she said, breaking the peaceful silence that had descended over them.

"You don't look like an owl. You don't have feathers or a beak, for one," he teased, trying to cajole her out of an obvious bout of melancholy.

She smiled softly despite the way she was feeling. "I'm tired of being used as one. Ron won't talk to Harry and thinks I have to be the messenger. Oh-" she started, realizing who she was talking to.

"There's no one in my family- aside from Mum, maybe-" he clarified, remembering his mother's reactions to the havoc the twins liked to wreak, "that thinks we're all good and perfect all the time," he said, reassuring her that he wouldn't take offense to her disparaging comments about his younger brother.

...

"You have a funny definition of hiding."

"Sometimes hiding in plain sight is the best way," she shrugged. "They expect me to be holed up in a library or room with a book, and would never look for me outside."

"No books?"

She shook her head. "I've been reading all day. I needed time to let it all sink in."

He nodded and sat down beside her on the banks of the pond.

...

"Ron?"

She shook her head. "He thinks he wants... something, but it's not something I can give to him."

"Why not?"

"I'm 17. I'm too young to be thinking about that, and the war makes it hard to make any commitment."

...

"Harry is going into Auror training and Ron has agreed to help George out in the shop."

"And you? Finishing your seventh year?"

"I could pass the NEWTS in my sleep." She pulled a piece of paper from the book beside her and handed it to him.

He took the paper, noting that it was Muggle paper and not parchment. Reading it, his eyebrows shot into his hairline. She'd been accepted into Cambridge medical school. "You're going back to the Muggle world then?"

She smiled slyly and handed him another piece of paper. This one, he noted, was parchment, and from St. Mungo's, offering her a Healing apprenticeship.

"Which one then?" he asked, knowing this was a big decision she had to make.

"Both of them," she replied, taking the letters back from him and replacing them in the book.

"That's a lot of work, Owl," he commented.

"It doesn't scare me," she replied before going silent for a few moments to gather her thoughts. "When I started at Hogwarts, one of my parents' stipulations was that I get a proper Muggle education as well. So while I was learning all of the skills needed to be a proper witch, I was also learning literature and chemistry and maths and all of the traditional Muggle subjects. I love this world, but I also love the Muggle world. There is something to be said for making things happen without magic. I think you understand," she looked at him.

He nodded. He did understand. Dragons were magical creatures, to be sure, but they were also nearly impervious to wizard magic. He and the other keepers had to rely on brute strength, sharp reflexes, force of will, and ingenuity much of the time to outsmart the powerful creatures.

"I want to do something that blends the two worlds together. I'm a witch, but I have Muggle heritage. I don't want to turn my back on that just because I can do magic, and I don't want to write the magical world off because it's full of archaic prejudices. I can't take much magical healing into the Muggle world, but I can use Muggle knowledge to enrich magical healing. And," she paused again, trying to find the words to say what she needed. "Throwing myself into school will leave me little time for romance."

"Ron?" He asked, knowing the complicated maneuvers the two had been dancing for years.

"I kissed him at the end of the last battle, but I didn't feel anything. He claims he did, but I can't make myself feel things for him that aren't there. No offense to your mother, but I'm not Molly Weasley. I want more from life than to have and tend to a houseful of children, but Ron- that's what he wants, and that dream is incompatible with mine."

"I understand, Owl," he told her, laying back on the grass, his weight supported on his arms. "Why do you think I stay gone so much? I don't want to hear about how I need to settle down with a quiet job at the Ministry, find a nice girl and start a family." He turned his head towards her, "There's more to life than the Ministry and a houseful of kids. Bill and I both saw that a long time ago, and when we were able, we left to pursue our own dreams."

"You and Bill are both adrenaline junkies," she smiled at him. "Neither of you are content to sit at a desk and push paperwork."

"Adrenaline junkie?"

"Muggle term," she grinned at him. "Basically, someone who is happiest when he or she is doing dangerous things."

He let loose a laugh at the utter truth of that.

...

"How did my brother react?" He asked, taking her bag and hefting it over his shoulder.

"Not well," She replied, a frown on her face. "He exploded at the idea of me spending eighteen months with you. Never mind that it's eighteen months of _required_ field training for my future." She sighed. "I don't understand why he hasn't given up. It's been 5 years since I started my medical training, and I've been so busy I've barely kept up with anyone."

"Except me."

She smiled wanly. "You're probably the only one who understands."

...

"Back to London?" He asked, sitting and resting his back against the large rock she sat upon.

"I'd rather not," she replied, leaning back and letting the warm breeze warm her face.

"Ron again?"

She sighed. "A decade of waiting and you think he'd have given up."

He smiled. "Weasleys can be patient."

"Charlie?" she asked, catching something in his tone.

"Yes?"

"Have _you_ been patient?"

"Very much, Hermione."

"Come up here and kiss me," she demanded, smiling that her long-held feelings were reciprocated. It was just like Charlie to not make any demands on her while she was pursuing her dream.

A huge grin split his face as he joined her on the rock. "I thought you'd never ask."

***** Fin *****


End file.
